“As I die, the

abandoned fire of my songs will burn in the world”

– Lesia Ukrainka

Lesia Ukrainka was born on February 25, 1871, in Ukraine to a literary family. Her parents gravitated towards the intellectual side of Ukrainian society, and both encouraged her pursuit of writing from a young age. She grew fond of writing poetry and, being raised in a patriotic home, she wrote mainly in Ukrainian. Her knowledge of English, German, French, Italian, Greek, Latin, Polish, Russian, and Bulgarian would later allow her to translate other works into Ukrainian.

During this time of Russian control, harsh laws were trying to prohibit the speaking and writing of Ukrainian. The Russian Empire believed if people were able to communicate in their own language, it would weaken the empire. Their rules made it difficult to even learn Ukrainian. The language was banned from schools, Ukrainian books were banned, and many of its universities shut down. It was not even permitted to be used to accompany musical scores. What Ukrainka’s family was doing was revolutionary in its own way; when Ukrainka herself began publishing poetry in Ukrainian at the age of eight, it was radical.

Olha Kobylianska was born in what was then Austria-Hungary but is now Romania on November 27, 1863. Her family had very different goals for their daughter. One of seven children, her family tried to raise the perfect wife. What little formal education she was given related directly back to that goal. One thing that her Ukrainian father was firm in was that his children would predominantly speak and write in Ukrainian. While that was completely manageable within the home, it was not enforceable elsewhere. In the end, Kobylianska learned more German than Ukrainian.

She began most of her work in German, and when she tried to write more in Ukrainian she was largely dissuaded. At the time, Ukrainian was seen as a lesser language unfit for poetic and artistic writing. This is particularly interesting considering the current discussion of why she chose to switch languages, Dr. Rory Finnin, Head of Ukrainian Studies at Cambridge University says:

“Theories abound, most of them reliant on references to and assumptions about Kobylians'ka's biography, career and identity. Some argue that she saw an easier path to influence and prominence in the Ukrainian literary context than in the German one; others posit that she was inspired by the patriotic spirit of feminist contemporaries like Nataliia Kobryns'ka and Sofiia Okunevs'ka, whom she befriended in the 1890s. These theories tend to frame Kobylians'ka's choice as first and foremost political or pragmatic. They often fail to consider a simpler possibility: that the choice was above all an artistic and even serendipitous one. We might say that Kobylians'ka's adoption of Ukrainian was not unlike Jackson Pollock's adoption of sticks and trowels: it fit a distinctive artistic sensibility. It nourished an individual voice and allowed her, as it were, to speak the new. For Kobylians'ka, art was everything. She was a follower of Nietzsche, fully committed to his philosophy of life affirmation and fully convinced of the revitalising potential of the aesthetic.”

The rebellious act of writing in Ukrainian certainly did fit into her aesthetic as a writer, as much of her work was based in feminist ideology. She is remembered as one of the main figures of the feminist literary movement at the time. Through all of her work, she was fighting an uphill battle. When she decided to write about three women living together—including a revolutionary depiction of same-sex love—she was absolutely in character.

The play in question Valse melancolique was written in 1898 and is remembered as an intensely feminist piece, compared to A Room of One’s Own by fellow queer woman Virginia Woolf. The work depicts three women who live together and is based on the belief that women should be allowed to pursue a multitude of lifestyles. Be that in domestic labour or not. While she encouraged women to choose whatever life fit best, she didn’t restrain herself in criticizing the highly romanticized ideals of femininity that dominated her time. Kobylianska held these beliefs firmly in her personal life as well; most of her romantic relationships with men failed when they were unable to keep up with her progressive way of thinking.

Where Kobylianska was likely spurred towards the feminist movement in part because of her family's (especially her mother’s) limited view of her future, Ukrainka’s mother pushed her daughter purposefully into feminism. Her mother was the author of a feminist almanac, and Ukrainka would become a defining voice in Ukraine’s feminist movement along with Kobylianska.

Where Kobylianska’s life work varied in the political and social issues, Ukrainka focused primarily on Ukrainian independence, which would be the defining issue of her work.

Her writing, often illegally written in Ukrainian, would have to be smuggled into the Russian-ruled portion of Ukraine.

Her love for her country and culture did not mean ignorance of others. After her tuberculosis diagnosis, travel was a highly recommended treatment. Ukrainka would visit many other countries throughout her life and loved most of them, but none as much as she loved Ukraine.

While she loved and valued her time away from her country, travel was not the only cost of her chronic illness. Upon their first meeting, Ukrainka and Kobylianska were immediately caught by each other. Each encouraged the other’s work. Their “friendship” has been described as close, homoerotic, passionate, and making them “sisters in spirit”. Unfortunately, due to illness and circumstances, the two women were unable to live together. Some historians imply it is because of this that they never sparked a sexual relationship.

A sexual relationship is not necessary for a romantic relationship. But for Kobylianska specifically, the sexual satisfaction of women in relationships was a theme within her writing. Both women also had several romantic relationships with men throughout their lives. With that in mind, it is a distinct possibility that their relationship may have been one of close friendship. However, their letters are considered “homoerotic” even by those who believe their relationship was platonic.

Some of their correspondence was written in code and later decoded, adding to the erotic overtones of their writing. This revelation has resulted in intense controversy in modern Ukrainian and Russian society. Russia has continued to shame Ukraine for the possibility that one of their most prolific authors was attracted to women. In response, the assertion that Ukrainka was anything except straight causes uproar, especially compared to the near-silent response to Kobylianska’s sexuality.

Ukrainka’s popularity may play a role here. However, it is also challenging to argue Kobylianska’s sexuality due to the queer themes in her writing. The stories of their relationships with men take up paragraph after paragraph, whereas their relationship with each other remains in the footnotes.

Writing letters to each other as often as possible, they had pet names for each other and were tender in their conversations. Whatever form their relationship may have taken, the two women loved each other deeply. Each pushed the other artistically and personally. When people criticized Kobylianska for her German influences, Ukrainka would maintain that it only added to the depth of her work, writing:

“Your salvation was in this Germany, it led you to recognize world literature, it transported you out into the broader world of ideas and art—this simply leaps out at one, when one compares your writing with that of the majority of Galicians.”

The influence these two women had on each other’s works cannot be overstated. Each fed into the other’s passion for representing and revitalizing the literary scene within Ukraine.

Ukrainka would die in 1913 at the age of 42. Kobylianska followed long after in 1942 at the age of 78.

In the time between Ukrainka’s death and Kobylianska’s, life was fraught. Her work went back and forth, being shamed and praised by the state, depending on the time. Eventually, when Nazi’s conquered Bukovina, the region in which she lived, she was declared to be a “red writer.” Her health was too poor to flee, and she was court-martialed; the only thing that stopped her execution was her death by natural causes in 1942.

She is remembered as a fantastic writer and a significant figure in the Ukrainian literary canon, though she never quite reached the Ukrainka’s height of popularity.

While Kobylianska had come into the discussion a little later than Ukrainka, the two shared a wavelength and would become defining voices for that time in Ukraine’s history. Both championed feminism and Ukrainian independence in their work. They left behind extraordinary legacies. These women, who adored each other, have their names permanently entangled in the history books. To discuss one is to discuss the other. Through active and concentrated effort, history is nevertheless unable to separate the lives they lived together.

[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]

Aldrich, R., & Wotherspoon, G. (2002). Who's who in gay and lesbian history: From antiquity to World War II. London: Routledge.

Ekaterina. (2020, July 20). Ukrainian literature #7. Olha Kobylianska / Ольга Кобилянська (biography, reading together) [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=SAgt6pTI-BA

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Struk, D. H. Lesia Ukrainka and the Aestheticist Perspective. http://sites.utoronto.ca/elul/Struk-mem/Works/Ukrainka-Aestheticist.pdf